A sprawling, cluttered property in Pottstown got a made-for-TV cleanout

Faced with cleaning out their father’s 10-acre farm property in Pottstown after his death in 2023, Barbra Levan and Michael Leininger were overwhelmed. After over 40 years, Ronald Leininger’s home was bursting at the seams.

An old-school machinist and collector, he had accumulated tools and equipment from his machine shop, a rifle and ammunition collection, and lots of other stuff. Inside the house, every room was crammed floor to ceiling. Outside, the overgrown property was littered with an RV, semitrailer, containers, and assorted equipment.

Levan was working full-time and Michael Leininger was going through cancer treatments. If they were going to clean out the property, they were going to need some help. But with all the heavy equipment and other tools they would need, they learned, the job would take two years and cost as much as $40,000.

Along came Filthy Fortunes, a new Discovery Channel television show hosted by Matt Paxton, who previously hosted the reality TV show Hoarders. On the show, he says, “we find really cool stuff in really messy houses and sell it.”

Levan and Leininger’s cleanout will be featured on Filthy Fortunes March 16 at 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel. For Paxton, their situation was a familiar one.

“It’s hard for the families to clean out their parents’ estates because they’re overwhelmed with emotion and lead busy lives,” he said.

For five days in June 2024, in 100-degree heat, Paxton’s team painstakingly rummaged through every bag, box, nook, and cranny, searching for anything valuable or meaningful to the family. The job required a 20,000-pound excavator to move the semitrailer from the woods, a Bobcat skid steer, and an 8,000-pound mini excavator.

Their goal was to sell enough to cover the costs of their labor, with money left over to split with the family. Paxton used his go-to experts who know the value of every find, including scrap metal, antiques, art, and toys.

“There’s always a risk,” said Paxton. “If we don’t find enough money to cover the cleanup costs, we’re out of pocket. And we promise to empty the house.”

Paxton, a father of seven who lives in Atlanta, fell into this line of work when he was 24. His dad, stepdad, and both his grandfathers passed away in one year, and he was tasked with cleaning out their homes.

“My grandfather had always said, ‘If something is really hard, do it as a job,’ because people will pay you to do it,” Paxton recalled.

Throughout his career, he has uncovered millions of dollars in gold and cash, a Sandy Koufax rookie card, and original Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí paintings. His largest financial haul was found in a sealed envelope marked ‘trash.’ Inside were old stock certificates worth $2.4 million.

Paxton almost always finds cash in books, often the most boring titles that no visitor would grab to read. He’s also found money in the freezer, toilet lid, coffee cans, cereal boxes, flour canisters, loose floorboards, suitcases, coat linings, and buried in the backyard. He brings a metal detector to every job in search of that buried treasure.

Through learning peoples’ personal stories, Paxton has come to understand why people hoard. Some hold happiness and self-worth in their possessions. For others, especially who have lived through the Great Depression, it’s proof they survived and mattered. Hoarding also happens after a tragedy or loss.

Levan believes her dad began accumulating things after his divorce.

To help prevent things from getting out of hand, Paxton advises homeowners to purge their homes of any paper records older than seven years, old paint cans, and boxes of photographs collecting dust in the attic. Get rid of any boxes you haven’t looked at in many years.

And don’t make searching for valuables take over your life.

“Your time is more valuable than most of the stuff you’re going to find,” he said. “The biggest value is the house itself. Don’t let cleanout take so long that you’re trying to find an extra $100 in the house, but you’re going to miss a real estate swing.”

The trick to getting on Filthy Fortunes, Paxton said, is not about being worth millions of dollars, but having an interesting story and wanting to cherish memories.

“The most valuable stuff, you don’t even know is in your house,” he said.

For Levan, the greatest find was her grandfather’s military suitcase that Paxton found in the attic. Inside were war medals, his uniform, and a picture of Levan as a young girl.

The family ultimately sold the house to neighbors in October. Beyond having the property cleaned out and making some cash, the show process was a blessing for Levan because shortly after, her brother Michael died from cancer.

“It was a time that I got to spend with him and go through the house where we grew up,” she said. “We got to relive a lot of memories before I lost him.”

Did you recently give your property new life by cleaning out or reorganizing? Tell us about your project (and send some digital photographs) at [email protected].